


The Very Best

by DWM



Category: Pokemon, X-Men - All Media Types, X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: M/M, Other Characters will be added as they appear in the fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-03-02
Updated: 2012-06-12
Packaged: 2017-11-01 00:06:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 15,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/349803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DWM/pseuds/DWM
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fill for my own prompt at the meme:</p><p>The Xaviers have a Pokémon Gym, Cain is the Gym Leader, Charles and Raven help with the Gym but Charles would rather become a Pokémon Professor like his hero Professor Oak and Raven wants to be a Pokémon Trainer much against their Mom's wishes who wants her to follow on the Xavier women's tradition of becoming Pokémon Coordinators.</p><p>Enter Erik Lensherr, a Pokémon Trainer whose objective is to beat the Pokémon League Champion, Sebastian Shaw, and so is collecting badges to enter the Pokémon Tournament.</p><p>Charles and Raven are infautated by the lone trainer and decide to accompany him whether their family -and Erik himself even- approves or not.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Erik Lenhsher of Magnus Village

“—part of our everyday lives, providing us with their strength and wisdom. It’s thanks to them that we’ve been able to come this far in science, culture and more. One cannot strive without the other, human and Pokémon, Pokémon and human evolve together, strive together--“

He was so caught up in today’s Pokémon lecture that he missed the violent thumping going down the hall, didn’t hear the ominous heavy steps approaching his room nor did he notice Eevee’s ears perking up to flatten down quickly a second later, its big round eyes darting from the door to its owner in worry.

On the TV screen, Professor Oak fought a sneezing fit brought on by a loving Jumpluff that refused to let go of him. 

The room was big, spacious, books and papers cluttered the floor and shelves, there was a desk somewhere, surely, buried under notebooks and research notes. The flat TV was mounted on the wall at just the perfect height and angle to be comfortably watchable from the bed. It was also at the recommended distance to keep one’s eyes safe as per Professor Oak’s pre-recorded advice, played at the start of every episode of his Pokémon Encyclopedia show. Eevee’s warning squeaks were ignored. 

“--the more answers we find the more questions will arise. --Atchoooo!--Personally, --sniff-- it’s a journey I’m thrilled to take at the side of these majestic –atchoo atchoo wheeze atchoo sniff -- creatures, powerful and admirable, these our Pokémon friends –ATCHOOOO!--.”

Perched as he was atop his ridiculously extensive bed, Charles jumped in surprise when the room’s door slammed open. A couple of books toppled down from the shelves while he himself fell to the floor with a loud THUD!

“YOU TWERP!” bellowed a bulky boy at the door; his face was the most accurate impression of a mad Gyarados he’d ever seen and fuming red was one color he wore often too, although this special hue was rare. It usually meant big, Wailmer big, trouble.

Groaning, Charles rolled over to look under the bed where Eevee was crouched, its eyes narrowed, ready to pounce if need be. ‘Stay there’ he mouthed and stood up to greet his stepbrother.

“Cain.”

“WHERE THE HELL WHERE YOU?” 

“I’m so terribly sorry, brother. It’s just-- Today’s was a new episode and I couldn’t miss Prof—“

“TA HELL WITH YOUR STUPID SHOW FOR PANSIES! YOU AND RAVEN ARE SUPPOSED TO BE AT THE GYM AT ALL HOURS AND YOU WEREN’T! I HAD TO FIGHT A FREAKING MAGIKARP!”

Charles cringed at both Cain’s rude words and loud shouting but he knew better than to ask him to lower his voice; the oaf would only shout more. Insulting his hero, however, was something he just couldn’t let pass.

“I’ll have you know that without the work of people like Professor Oak or Professor Elm, human-pokémon relationships wouldn’t be as good as they are nowadays and we certainly wouldn’t have the technology to--” 

“LIKE I GIVE A SHIT! YOU LET A WEAKLING WASTE MY TIME. I WAN’T BOTH YOUR ARSES BACK AT THE GYM! FIFTEEN MINUTES OR ELSE!!!” As he said this Cain shook threateningly his fist in the air and Charles managed to suppress an eye roll, it would only make his brother madder. Then Cain stomped out of Charles room bellowing a last threat, hitting the wall as he walked away.

“Well, guess I’ll be visiting the Pokémon Center this evening, eh, little friend?” Charles sighed tiredly and extended his hand to pat Eevee’s head, already at his side. The pokémon squealed in delight when Charles scratched the back of its ears.

There was nothing that angered Cain more than being challenged by inexperienced trainers and he often beat the poor guys and their Pokémon to an inch of their lives, which had given the Xavier Gym a bad reputation in the region. Sadly, the Marvelia League required eight badges to participate and there were exactly eight licensed gyms, Xavier’s included, so it was a must stop for any trainer looking to enter the tournament. It used to be one of the most sought after gyms around once, now it was the most feared out of them all. Charles would often spend his time after gym closing hours with distraught trainers at the PokéCenter, offering them comforting words and a shoulder while Joy and Chansey stabilized the injured pokémon. 

Eevee squeaked urgently.

Right, Raven, they had to find her and then go back to their respective posts at the gym before Cain’s foul mood claimed any more victims.

Truth be told, Charles wasn’t much one for battles; he’d rather study pokémon behavior and further his own research for that paper he was writing, a paper on pokémon evolution in the wild versus pokémon evolution in human-assisted scenarios, addressed to the one and only Professor Oak. If only gym duties didn’t take up so much of his time, if only he could travel, meet new pokémon; observe them in their natural habitat…--but he and Raven had to fight the newcomers, let only the trainers strong enough to defeat them both challenge their violent leader. He felt for anyone willing to battle Cain, he had to warn them of the risk or at least make sure they would survive the experience.

Now, finding Raven in the immensity of the Mansion would take more than fifteen minutes. It was true that the Gym took half of the building and yet the living quarters remained huge. What if she wasn’t even in the building? She could be anywhere within the massive Xavier state: she could be exploring the woods –her favorite pastime-, at the lake –she swore there was a red Gyarados in there-- or at the cottage, hiding from mom. So yes, anywhere.

Charles smiled and closed the door to his room. He made sure to lock it too and then closed the curtains. Eevee stood by the wall perking its ears wary of any unwelcome sound from outside the room.

The trick was to think very hard about food or to sing something but Charles didn’t have a particularly gifted voice --not that it ever complained when it got him to sing-- so he pictured a basket of Lum berries, green, juicy, shiny and so very very delicious, mouth watering, soft—

“Mew?”

“Hey,” greeted Charles with a wide affectionate grin.

“Mew mew!”

“Yes, sorry, no Lum berries in here.”

The pink little creature frowned accusingly but floated closer to Charles, circling him briefly before mewling happily and softly bumping its head against his.

“I can’t hide anything from you, can I?” laughed Charles as he fished a berry out of his vest right pocket. “It’s a Pecha berry, though.”

Mew ate the berry quickly with great gusto and eyed longingly the one Charles was feeding to his eevee. 

“I’m out of berries,” apologized Charles when he noticed Mew watching. He extended his arms and showed it his empty hands.  
Mew made a sad face and just as quickly went back to its usual playfulness. It floated some of the papers at Charles’ desk close to its face, eyes following the lines of scrawled words and Charles wondered for the umpteenth time if Mew was actually reading them or just imitating a human behavior, most precisely his, since Mew often found him reading some thing or another. He would also read it books at night to weasel out of singing a lullaby. It seemed to really like his voice.

“I was hoping you could help me find my sister,” 

Mew let the papers down back onto their original place, save for one, which it tossed to the litterbin.

“That was important to me, you know?” Charles pointed out to the discarded paper but Mew just huffed and left it there. Charles shook his head, a fond amused smile on his face.

“Mew?”

“Yes, my sister Raven. You know her: blond, about my height,” Charles sighed dejectedly at this, why, Raven was his little sister and yet she was taller than him and still growing! He heard a laugh, not out loud but in his head. Mew. It was something it had started doing recently too; it would project onto Charles mind his own human laughs, recorded from here and there, whenever something he said or did amused it. Mew still had some trouble sorting out which kind of laugh was proper for each situation; it would sometimes project a guffaw for something that warranted only a little chuckle of acknowledgment, for example, or an excited giggle for something that was supposed to be laughed at ironically. It was learning fast, though.

Mew hovered close to Charles and curled around his head as some sort of living helmet, its tiny soft paws touched delicately on each one of his temples. It closed its eyes as did Charles and soon enough they both were scouring the place, sensing the minds of the people around until they hit upon a bright familiar spot by the edge of the woods.

“That’s Raven,” confirmed Charles, he poked Mew’s nose, “thank you, my friend.” Mew let go of him, then glided cheerfully around the room in circles while Charles prepared to go to the Gym. Pokéwatch: check. Pokéballs: check. Professor Oak’s Big Pokémon Book: check.

“I’ll be at the Pokémon Center this evening so I won’t be back ‘till night,” announced Charles to which Mew responded by tilting its head to the side curiously.

“I’ll see if I can bring you some muffins from Joy but I promise nothing,” he said walking to the door. Mew kept staring and Charles gave him an apologetic smile “I know I said I’d read to you this evening but I’m afraid we’ll have to wait until tomorrow to know if the little brave Poliwag was able to deliver the evil Mismagius Witch’s ring to the pits of Moltres’ volcano and break once and for all its curse over the Poli Village.”

Mew looked a bit put out but nodded and twisted in the air.

“Don’t get in trouble,” said Charles as Mew became invisible. He opened the door and went to look for his sister.

\--- (o)---

“Raven!” Shouted Charles approaching the state’s forest and stopped running at the sight of his sister peeking at him from behind a large tree. Eevee trotted to her while Charles doubled over, hands on his knees, panting. He pointedly didn’t move until she walked over to meet him, hands hidden behind her back and face contorted with the effort of suppressing a wide smile, Eevee hot on her heels.

“Before you say anything, I know I promised to cover for you at the Gym gates today so you could watch your show and I’m truly sorry I didn’t do it but you see, something came up. Don’t be mad, please?“

“Cain had to fight a magikarp.” Charles stated plainly. He wasn’t mad at her, he wasn’t and he couldn’t ever be. He loved her too much. True, she had made a promise and she had broken said promise but he wasn’t mad. More like disappointed. 

“He’s going to skin us, isn’t he?”

“Well, we have,” Charles raised his arm and gave a quick look at his pokéwatch, “about five minutes to prevent a most dreadful fate, I’d say.” 

Raven nodded but didn’t seem too preoccupied about their odds, in fact her poorly suppressed glee finally broke open and a big elated grin overtook her face. Charles couldn’t help but smile fondly in return. 

“All right, let’s get this over with; you are dying to tell me why you risked Cain’s wrath and so I’ll ask: What kept you from gym duties, dear sister?”

Raven bounced on her feet and threw a pokéball in the air with a flourish, “Mystique, I choose you!” she shouted.

A Sneasel came out of the pokéball ready to fight, claws showing menacingly, knees flexed ready to jump.

“Sneasel! Raven, you got a Sneasel!” Charles beamed and the Sneasel stared at him warily; it waved its claws at Eevee when the little thing tried to befriend it. With a horrified squeak, Eevee retreated to the safety of the back of Charles’ legs and once there, threw a wounded glare to Raven’s unfriendly new pokémon.

“Isn’t she gorgeous?” Raven exclaimed full of pride. She crouched next to her Sneasel and gave it a berry to eat.

“Is this the one that’s been terrorizing the other pokémon in our grounds?”

“No more terrorizing for her, though, she’s got a home now.” 

Charles was truly impressed, Raven had a way with pokémon and she taming the little devil was proof enough of how good she was. Mystique was relaxed, content even, eating from his sister’s hand.

“How did you do it? Not even Cain could capture it,” not for lack of trying though. Oh, how Charles remembered the first few weeks after the sneasel had been sighted around! Cain had dragged both him and Raven to nightly hunts in its search. He had battled it a couple of times too and the only one occasion his pokéball had hit the pokémon before it fled, the device hadn’t been able to trap it.

“Well, you see brother, we struck a deal: She won’t have to hide nor steal food anymore and I’ll have a new friend to love and take care of. Sounds familiar?” Raven gave Charles a tiny smile, eyes shinning and full of affection.

“Oh Raven, you silly girl come here.” Charles hugged his sister tightly, “So you are a Sneasel now?” he teased letting go of her.

“Yes, and you are a Metapod!” She replied with a laugh. Retrieving her pokémon, she walked towards the gym.

“Metapod are pretty good pokémon in their own way, let me tell you,” argued Charles, hurrying after her.

“Okay, you are a Chansey.”

“They are all female!”

“A Stunky then.”

“Now you are just trying to annoy me.”

“A Trubbish!”

\--- (o)---

Charles and Eevee sat on the ground by the Gym’s gates, Raven long gone to the second floor. He was immersed in his book, occasionally dictating passages he deemed important along with the paragraph’s number and page to his pokéwatch, when Eeevee alerted him to a newcomer.

 _“Vee, vee, eevee!”_ it urged, its ears twitching excitedly.

Charles rose to his feet and brushed the dirt off his backside. Once he deemed himself presentable he peered at his pokéwatch screen, it was synced to the gym’s security systems, and waited for the tall slender figure caught by the camera to cross the gates.

The trainer, dressed in black and grays --and was that a purple turtleneck under the jacket? Oh God, it was, he wore it well, though-- entered the building to be intercepted by Charles in his most dramatic entrance, all slow confident walk, hands in his side pockets and chin up; Eevee walking regally by his side. Presentation played an important role in every Pokémon Battle, a nice presentation could intimidate your foe and made them hesitate, it also boosted one’s pokémon’s confidence and in consequence its performance. 

“I’m afraid you’ll have to prove yourself worthy of challenging Cain by first defeating us, my friend. Here’s a piece of advice to you, though: Don’t let our looks deceive you.”

The stranger merely frowned and studied him for all of a second before the side of his mouth --a thin line at first-- lifted an almost imperceptible inch.

“All right,” he said. For some reason it made Charles’ knees go weak. Quickly recovering, he cleared his throat and introduced himself “Charles Xavier,” he extended his hand to the visitor.

“Erik Lehnsherr,” he was still smirking in that unnerving way of his even as they shook hands.

“Nice to meet you, Erik. Ready?”

“Sure.”

Erik threw a pokéball, “Lorna, come out!” and from it emerged a Magnemite. Its surface was so shiny it reflected the gym’s lights, its magnets where perfectly aligned and its bolts tightly screwed. All in all a well cared for pokémon, beautiful and in great shape. Charles felt something melt inside him. It was rare to find trainers that paid that much attention to their pokémon upkeeping. Even he sometimes forgot to brush Eevee’s fur and it showed, much to his shame. 

Quickly, Charles sent a pokéball of his own into the air too, “Let’s do this, Wobbuffet!”

With its trademark salute, Wobbuffet faced Erik’s Magnemite.

“A wobbuffet,” snorted Erik.

“Wobbuffet are amazing pokémon. It’s baffling the way people underestimate their capacities, you know? And they are pretty smart creatures too, no matter what the general public’s opinion—“ Charles bristled but his rant was cut short by Erik making his move.

“Lorna, use Thunder Shock!”

The air sizzled around Magnemite and glowing yellow it discharged a lighting bolt toward Wobbuffet. 

“Wobbuffet! Mirror Coat, now!” Charles shouted. 

Wobbuffet stiffened as the bolt reached him; it stumbled for a bit but positioning its hand back to its forehead, steady on its feet now, released the attack back to Magnemite.

Lorna received the hit hard and faltered, dropping down a few inches in the air but with a swift recovery, rose again to wait for his trainer’s next command.

“We are not that easy. Lorna use Thunder Wave and then lower his defenses with Metal Sound!”

“Wobbuffet protect yourself!”

Too late to do as told, Wobbuffet found itself engulfed with electricity and its blue body went taut. It had been paralyzed. Erik’s magnemite vibrated its magnets making Charles’ pokémon dizzy.

“Wobbuffet, c’mon, you can fight it off! Move, move!” It didn’t seem like Wobbuffet would be able to shake off the static for a while, though. 

“Go again with Thunder Shock, Lorna! Focus all of your power in this attack to finish him!”

Erik was pretty sure they had the round won but to their surprise, although Lorna’s discharge landed in full force, Wobbuffet miraculously endured the hit and was able to perform a Mirror Coat as per Charles hurried instructions. Lorna fainted when the doubled force of its own Thunder Shock struck back.

“You did well, rest,” praised Erik as he returned the pokémon to its pokéball. He had said it so low that Charles had barely heard the words. “Go Wanda!” 

Another Magnemite came forth to battle. This one was as beautiful and healthy looking as the first one, only slightly bigger, its metallic frame seemed to have been polished recently and it emitted an oddly soothing glow, which Charles knew --from the books-- meant that it was content.

“You sure love your magnets,” observed Charles cheekily.

“You could say I’m the Master of Magnetism then,” retorted Erik, his small smirk grew into an actual smile.

“Should explain your magnetic personality.” It wasn’t rare for Charles to tease his opponents, it was something he enjoyed greatly, but for the first time ever he felt embarrassed, honestly embarrassed, once the words had left his mouth and he wondered why. 

Erik grinned in a way that made Charles feel uncomfortable again, “I’d say,” he replied.

Charles cleared his throat; he didn’t seem to be able to come with an appropriate response so he motioned for Erik to make his move instead, feeling silly.

“Wanda, tackle at full speed!” 

“Wobbuffet, dodge!”

Wobbuffet was unable to move this time, the static left by Lorna binding it in place, an easy target for Wanda. 

The magnemite charged at Wobbuffet with remarkably force and Wobbuffet let out a strangled cry before falling onto the ground, its black tail giving a last twitch before it went still. 

“Oh no, Wobbuffet!” Worried, Charles didn’t hesitate run to the pokémon’s prone body on the floor, it was unconscious but further examination proved him to be otherwise fine. He returned it to its pokéball, “You were pretty brave, I’m proud,” and called Eevee forth to the field.

“Are you going to run to the middle of the battlefield every time I knock out one of your pokémon?” asked Erik with furrowed brows, “Because that’s stupid.” 

Well, it was a habit he’d been trying to get rid off of, Raven mocked him already enough for it— Wait, Erik had just called Charles stupid! He felt his cheeks grow hot and suddenly Erik wasn’t very magnetic anymore. 

Walking back to his previous spot, Charles refused to acknowledge neither the bemused expression on Erik’s face or the blush on his own. 

“Here we go! Eevee use Return!”

“Wanda, zap him with Spark!”

\--- (o)---

“No Mystique, you have to swing like this, like this,”

Raven wasn’t a baseball fan, hadn’t been ever. And if she didn’t understand sports nor really cared about them it was all Charles’s fault anyway, not hers. Her brother wasn’t a sports person and although there was also Cain, who loved all kind of sports, especially if they were of the violent kind, she had grown up with Charles and his nerdy self alone. She was sure this had stunted her in all things sporty. Honestly.

Since that fateful day in the kitchen, it had always been just the two of them, Charles and Raven, Raven and Charles, because Cain was horrible and they avoided him as much as they could; their parents were hardly at home too, Kurt away researching pokémon, Sharon too preoccupied with maintaining the Marvelia Region Top Coordinator title. Raven was pretty much okay with that, though, because when Kurt was home he hoarded all of Charles’ attention and that made Raven lonely and Cain jealous –which didn’t bode well for her brother later-- and when Sharon was home, she nagged Raven nonstop about following the Xavier women tradition of being Top Coordinator and frowning upon her desire of being a Pokémon League Champion instead. 

Irene, however, Irene was Raven’s best friend and she loved baseball. She had a pokémon baseball team, The Legendary Ho-Oh’s, and was a player short for the Big Game tomorrow. Raven, not wanting to see her sad over them being disqualified, had offered to fill in with her pokémon which had made Irene very happy. What Raven hadn’t considered at all was her abysmally limited knowledge about the sport, rules and everything else related. She hadn’t even known that Dittos weren’t allowed in the participating teams until her friend had sent her the Grand Tournament Rules and Raven had had her then one and only pokémon, good loyal Raffi, a ditto, with her.

This morning, before sunrise, she had gone to one of her and Charles’ hideouts in the woods. The old one, the one she had asked him to not go into anymore so she could have a place for herself alone. It was her thinking place, where she could be away of needling mothers, violent oafs and coddling big brothers. It was also the place a heavily injured Sneasel had chosen to hide in since a few months ago. She had helped her recover as much as she had been able to, had brought her food from time to time and had shared her daily woes with her. 

It was after Raven had finished telling the wild pokémon about her problem with Irene that the Sneasel had suddenly challenged her, scratching her arm first and then snarling, taking on a battle stance.

So here she was now, teaching what little she knew about baseball to Mystique. She knew some basics from the few times Cain had made her and Charles play with him just to kick their asses and humiliate them. Who knew good things could come out of any dreadful family time with their step-brother?

She threw the ball to Mystique again and to her delight, this time she hit it hard with the bat and sent it flying to the other side of the wide room.

“Awesome! Well done! You did a _touchdown!_ Keep it up!” cheered Raven, doing a fist pump. Mystique snorted smugly.

“Pretty sure _touchdowns_ happen only in American Football and unless the rules have changed…”

Raven turned sharply to the room’s entrance where a tall boy dressed in black and grays –-and was that a purple turtleneck under the jacket? Oh God, it was, in any other person it’d look ridiculous but he looked kind of okay- _ish_ —was perched against the wall.

“I take it you beat my brother,” she said, “Well, don’t expect mercy from us, we are no softies like him. We’ll gonna kick your ass, er…”

“Erik,”

“Welcome to die, Erik!”

It’s not that Charles was a weakling but she was pretty sure he held back a lot in battle. And yet, very few people could pass through him, so if this Erik had reached the second floor of the Xavier Gym, that meant she had to be very careful. 

“Go, Mystique!”

“Welcome to die?” Erik asked with a baffled laugh, summoning a Magnemite from a pokéball, “What are you? Twelve?” 

“Got a problem with that?” Other kids often thought Raven was older than she really was, Charles had hesitantly told her once it was because of her height. But although it was nice sometimes because people thought more of you if they believed you to be older, it had started to get embarrassing about the time she grew taller than Charles. Other people mocked her when she behaved her age around him, when he called her his baby-sister. And then there was her face, which was still very round and child-like, standing out against her tall body. She only hoped she could stop growing soon, she didn’t want to be some kind of gigantic monster; she didn’t want people to look at her like she was a freak.

“Mystique, use scratch!” She wouldn’t give the stranger any more chances to mock her.

“Dodge it Pietro, and use Supersonic. Then tackle her at full speed!” This Erik boy was pretty quick to counter and its pokémon followed his orders swift and flawlessly. Yeah, he was good.

\--- (o)---

By the time Charles reached the Xavier Gym’s second battle room Wobbuffet was back to consciousness and healing steadily in its pokéball, Eevee too was, if not happy, at least in good enough shape to trot next to him all the way upstairs. Eevee didn’t deal well with defeat and it took it a while to get over a lost battle so it wasn’t a wonder that it was still sulking from their most recent fight –that Magnemite had been surprisingly strong--; hopefully, though, it’d be back to its usual cheerful self by dinnertime.

Charles was actually thrilled to witness her sister’s battle performance; she had improved so much in the few weeks they had been training since Kurt’s departure to Hoenn. He had even closed the Gym a bit early to go and see Raven fight. It wasn’t slacking, he’d told himself when locking shut the gates, since Erik had come in roughly a hour before closing time and the battle had been longer than he’d anticipated. Cain didn’t accept challengers after closing hours so it wasn’t like Charles would have let in any more trainers into the Gym in the few minutes he had to spare after his battle with Erik.

Much to his disillusionment, however, when he entered the battle room Raven was employing Raphael, her Ditto, in the fight while her Sneasel worried its wounds, licking the hurt away frantically, behind her. He’d just missed the new pokémon’s debut. _Bugger._

“Wanda, finish off that cheap copy of you with a tackle!”

“Raffi, don’t let her get to you! Move!” Too late, the Magnemite hit hard its mirror image, and just like that—

“Aw no! Raffi! Wake up, c’mon,” a pink gooey mass spread over the floor.

“Is it alright?” Charles hurried to examine the unconscious Ditto, Raven approaching them with a grimace. A swift check up told him the pokémon wasn’t gravely injured. “A potion, some rest and Raphael will be as good as new, darling,” he assured his worried sister.

Raven blushed at the endearment. She didn’t like him calling her cute names but he had a hard time keeping himself from doing so. At least he didn’t call her ‘sweetie’ or ‘poppet’ or ‘muffin’ or ‘dolly’ anymore. She also hated it when he called her his ‘baby sister’. She was at that age, he thought, when kids found embarrassing their family being affectionate with them. She’d probably outgrow it soon. Hopefully.

“Raphael?” observed Erik amused while Raven returned her pokémon to its pokéball. She glared at him.

“Yeah, Raphael-Raven Darkholme Adler Xavier,” she said with her chin up and a defiant glare. In her defense, _there was_ a funny story behind the Ditto’s naming and Raven did like dramatic names. It still sounded ridiculous, much to Charles’ chagrin.

Erik let out a small snort but said nothing else on the matter; instead he asked “Which way to the Gym Leader?”

Brother and sister pointed to the stairs leading to the third floor.

“We should warn you, Erik Lehnsherr, that Cain is not to be taken lightly. In my humble opinion, you are strong but not strong enough to face him yet,” said Charles, Raven nodded in agreement. “Your strategy lacks finesse and your pokémon need to work their control too. They obey orders very nicely but they aren’t fighting to their full potential.” 

At the sharp stare Erik pinned him with, Charles cleared his throat self-consciously, “Just offering some, ah, pointers.”

Erik just raised an eyebrow and Charles decided to not feel intimidated by him because he hadn’t said anything that wasn’t true. He stared back defiantly.

“We’d hate for all of your Magnemites to get terribly hurt,” drawled Raven, arms crossed, “Wherever you’d find more?”

“Raven…”

“He does have a lot of Magnemites!” 

“We all have our favorite pokémon,”

“Like, easily three, who’s got that many Magnemites and what for anyway?”

“Let’s not do this in front of others,”

“Thanks for the advice but I think I’ll take my chances,” cut in Erik not interested in watching the siblings bicker any further. He nodded a curt goodbye to them and went to face Cain.

“You mustn’t be rude to the trainers, sister dear,” admonished Charles once they were alone in the room, “That’s a sign of a sore looser, and you aren’t one, are you?”

Raven rolled her eyes and sighed. “Yeah, I’m sorry.”

“I’m not the one you should apologize to,” noted Charles as he retrieved a forgotten bat from the floor. “I almost forgot about Irene’s game tomorrow! I take it you’ve been practicing with Mystique? I can still lend you Wobbuffet if you’d like.”

Raven shook her head, “We are okay,” she looked to her Sneasel who nodded in acknowledgment. Charles hummed thoughtfully before swinging the bat, hitting an imaginary ball. He turned to his sister and puffed his chest, “I think I just did a _touchdown!_ ”

“That’s a football thing,” she replied annoyed, her cheeks turned pink at the memory of Erik’s dry remark when they met a moment ago.

“Oh,” Charles fumbled with the bat, feeling foolish. “What’s it called then?”

“I don’t know.” Raven said and both stared at each other in silence.

Ten minutes later, while Raven tended to Raphael and Mystique’s wounds, Charles read aloud to her about baseball concepts and rules from his pokéwatch, which had access to the world net.

\--- (o)---

Cain had been ruthless, unnecessarily brutal and had taken special glee in beating to oblivion his team. That’s how Erik found himself in the PokéCenter waiting room, Joy and her Audino already nursing Lorna and the others back to health. They would be alright, they were strong and had had worse, way worse, like Erik himself, and they had survived.

“They are though, they’ll make it. You too, must be though for them,” 

The Xavier boy had already been in the building by the time Erik had showed up, sitting next to a sobbing girl, comforting her. A pathetic display, really. Xavier had given him a short greeting before the girl had called for his attention back with a loud wail.

“I’m sure your Magikarp will be back in shape and splashing happily in no time. Magikarps are amazingly resilient pokémon, they are capable of taking a great amount of damage without feeling much pain. They also prevail in the most adverse of conditions, that’s why you find them everywhere, from mountain rivers to volcanic ponds and even city-waste dump waters! Why, they even live in both clear water and salt water! Although easily swept away by strong currents and having no other defense against predators then their own natural sturdiness, they are the most reproductively successful pokémon in the world!”

The girl wasn’t even paying that much attention to the boy’s enthusiastic spiel, she seemed to be more concerned with fusing their bodies together in what looked like the most awkward hug in the history of ever.

“Chuck’s a good kid.” Erik turned away from the couple to find a gruff hairy man lounging in a chair next to him, unlit cigar in mouth. “Wonder what’s he done to deserve that eye-daggers yer shootin’ at him.”

“Officer Logan?”

“Yeah, why the suspicious face, kid?”

“In my village…”

“That oughta be a cousin, or clone, or some shit o’ mine. I’m this town’s Officer Logan.”

Yes, Erik remembered now, he’d been told there was an Officer Logan in every settlement and that they were somehow related but how and why had always been a mystery. They’d never come quite clear with that. If you asked them, the standard responses varied from ‘clone’, ‘mite be family’ and ‘shit if I know’ to ‘fuck yourself’ if he deemed you old and annoying enough to curse at you.

“Anyway, you got a problem with Chuck, it’s probably Cain’s fault. He done kickin’ yer arse, ain’t he?”

Erik frowned. “I almost had him.” If the asshole hadn’t played dirty in the last minutes he’d have won for sure. 

“That’s what everyone says.”

In the row of chairs at the other side of the room, the girl had stopped sobbing and was talking animatedly about pokémon beauty contests, Charles nodding where appropriate.

“And I guess he’s here to make cute with the victims as some sort of damage control?” asked Erik pointing to Charles with a thumb and a contemptuous glance.

“Yeah, pretty much.”

Well, he’d thought as much but hadn’t really expected such a direct answer.

“But he really cares for the kids too. And if it wasn’t for him comin’ here to soothe ‘em victims, as you say, the Gym would’ve probably been done for a long time ago, Xaviers’ ol’ influence and fortune not withstanding.”

“And he comforts _every_ one of them,” observed Erik dryly, the girl practically crawling onto Xavier’s lap.

Officer Logan guffawed and gave him a hard pat on the back. “He’d be all over you too but you don’t seem like the kind who’d appreciate the gesture. Yer a though guy, ain’tcha?” 

Certainly. Erik needed no comfort, no friends and no brainwashing with empty kind words. He wouldn’t sue, he had no reason to and he wasn’t one to complain. He’d beat the asshole Gym leader and get his sweet revenge on the cheating pig and on _HIM_ too. Then he’d finally be done.

“Yes, Gyarados is one groovy evolution!” exclaimed Xavier but the girl made a face.

“But Gyarados are ugly.”

“They are very beautiful in their own way. You know, it’s trough evolution that pokémon and humans—“

“Darla Day? Your pokémon are ready to go,” announced Nurse Joy, she beckoned the girl to come over, a tray with her pokéballs in both hands. “You’ll have to let them rest for a few weeks and I have a list of recommendations for their care I’d like to share with you, if you have the time.”

“Of course, please,” nodded the girl.

“Officer Logan, I didn’t see you come in,” greeted Xavier, he nodded to Erik and sat next to him. “I heard you and your Zangoose caught some would-be thieves yesterday night at the bakery.”

“Yeah, two stupids in costume, said they from some Hellhole Club or somethin’. A pair of perverts judging by their outfits.”

“Surely not from around here.”

Logan harrumphed a yes; Xavier nodded and turned his attention to Erik.

“How are your pokémon? If you need anything—“

Officer Logan let out a loud snort and chewed on his cigar directing an amused grin to Erik. 

“I won’t cry on your shoulder if that’s what you’re expecting,” replied Erik curtly, “Won’t sue either, so don’t worry about that.”

“Alright, even so, I’d like to offer my help. We could do some training together so you are better prepared to face Cain, that is, if you are willing to challenge him again. You’ll find that even though I’m not much of a fighter myself, my pokémon knowledge can come quite in handy.” Xavier smiled amiably, his tone sincere.

“And why would you do that? Wouldn’t you be betraying your brother?”

“He’s not… er… it’s complicated.”

“The little shit needs his ass kicked, that’ll show ‘im. Nobody’s gotten the X Badge since he took over leader position at the Gym, ain’t it Chuck?”

Xavier made a face at the officer’s uncouth words but spoke to Erik with great seriousness. “Officer Logan’s right. My brother needs to learn some humility but he’s remained unmatched, until now. You have quite the talent, my friend. I wish you’d let me help you discover your true potential.” Xavier rested a hand on Erik’s shoulder, his touch was warm and to Erik’s disquieting surprise, not unwelcome.

“Tomorrow the Gym will be closed all day, we don’t open on Sundays, you see, and my sister and I will be visiting the neighboring village. You could come with us and we could train before the Game starts.”

Even if Xavier did have some ulterior motives, accepting the offer had its benefits. Getting close to the Xaviers might let him in on some of Cain’s secrets and help him develop better strategies to counter his dirty tricks.

“I’ll think about it,” replied Erik and Xavier beamed.

“We’ll leave at nine in the morning so if you decide to come, meet with us outside the Xavier estate gates.”

Erik nodded and with the corner of his eye saw Officer Logan stand up to go chat up Nurse Joy.

Xavier opened his mouth to say something but whatever it had been was to remain unsaid as a squeal that threatened to leave both of them deaf cut through the room. 

“Chaaaaarles! Fred is alright now!”

“That’s your date,” said Erik taking obvious pleasure in the way Xavier cringed at the insinuation and the girl’s shrill call of ‘Charlie?’

“She’s not –“ a pained sigh as she approached them and Erik made a strategic retreat to the farthest-away chair in the room. Xavier hid well his discomfort while he talked to the girl; he was what his Mum would call a ‘charmer’ and Erik didn’t trust him at all. 

Tomorrow would be interesting.

\--- (o)---

The morning sun found Charles and Raven on a gravel path just outside the Xavier estate’s gates. Charles was in a crouch looking over their backpacks, as always, double-checking their contents to make sure they had everything they needed for the journey, their bicycles waiting for them against the trunk of a close by tree. Raven’s Sneasel was perched on a branch above, chewing on a leaf twig. Eevee had by then been scratched twice trying to befriend it and now stood behind Charles shooting hurtful looks to the unfriendly thing. Mystique turned to look at Eevee with a malicious smirk and the little pokémon huffed indignantly.

“Pokéballs, potions, emergency first aid kid…”

Brother and sister wore a simple T-shirt each with the image of a fierce looking Ho-Oh and the letters “Go! Go! Ho-Ohs! Go!” as well as shorts in bright red and gold. Raven had laughed at Charles, out of his usual button ups and slacks, finding the sight of his lanky legs hilarious, she had said between chuckles that for once he looked the teenager he was and not an unnaturally short grandpa.

“…cellphone, pokéradar…” 

Raven rolled her eyes and would deny it to the end of times because she was a grown girl and grown girls didn't do go around whining to their older brothers, but she whined when she asked, “Can we leave now, please?”

Charles gave her an absentminded nod and continued inventorying their supplies, “…Razz berries, thermos, sunscreen…”

Eevee’s ears suddenly perked up and eyed something in the distance, Mystique sat up in attention too and then Charles heard his little sister shout to someone.

“Gym’s closed today so scram!” she said but the visitor still approached them, heedless of Raven’s words and her pokémon, ever untrusting, eyed the scene cautiously.

“Manners, sister dear, manners,” admonished Charles still too immersed in his inventorying to look at her, “…flashlight, rope, repellents…”

“I was invited to come along,”

Charles was up in an instant and beamed when he saw the tall boy from yesterday --now in a gray T-shirt and black pants, a duffel bag over his shoulder— next to a glaring Raven. He extended him a hand in greeting.

“Erik! So glad you could make it! We were about to leave.”

Erik eyed Charles’ proffered hand for all of two seconds before taking it in a hard, short handshake.

“Where’s your bike?” asked Raven, still wary of the guest. She didn’t like the way Charles befriended other people so easily and although Charles welcomed her scaring off some of the more clingy trainers he met at the Poke Center, it was something they had had many talks over already. 

“I don’t have one.”

Raven looked at Erik with narrowed eyes before turning her glare to her brother. "He doesn't have a bike, Charles," she hissed angrily.

But Erik was unperturbed by the scene, much to Charles relief, and seemed more interested in assessing their surroundings in an unnervingly calculating way.

"I'm so terribly sorry, Erik," apologized Charles sincere, "My sister has an important baseball game today," and here he pointed to his ridiculous outfit with both hands, a self-conscious smile on his face, "and she needs to be early for practice. If we go walking we would be arriving too late."

Charles, for all he liked to pride himself of being a people's person, tended to forget little, tiny important bits about that same people, like the fact that not everyone were him. Raven crossed her arms and glared some more, Erik remained impassive and Eevee pretended to nibble some grass a few feet away, wary of the tense atmosphere.

"I selfishly assumed that you had a bike, my friend. But I'm sure we could arrange something," Charles said chagrined and looked to her sister pleadingly, "Right?"

He didn't want her to miss her game, _he_ didn't want _to_ miss her game, but Charles also wanted to spend time with Erik, get to know him better, because he found him quite, as in 'I can't stop thinking about him' quite, interesting. His battle technique, for one, was pretty unique and his pokémon were astoundingly well groomed.

Erik shrugged and Raven, well, Raven smiled that devious smile of hers that often spelled doom.

"Sure, darling brother, we can arrange something."

\--- (o)---

While Charles' bike was completely bare, surprising considering his knack for packing overkill, Raven's had a basket in the front. The vehicle was also bright blue and taller than Charles'. For the life of him, though, Charles never thought he would end up hating that red steel basket he had installed with his own hands on her sister's bike as a present for her tenth birthday.

"This is highly undignified," he muttered after a bump in the road dug one of the basket's corners awkwardly into the flesh on the outside of his thigh.

"You'll live," chirped Raven and Charles had never found his sister so annoying before. Behind him, Erik grunted something hard to interpret.

"I beg your pardon?" Charles turned to look at his unwilling chauffer for the ride.

"I said," Erik's voice was deceptively low, "that you can lean back if you want."

It was a nice offer, it would help ease some of the weight off the bloody basket and his buttocks would stop protesting the pressure. But he didn't want to presume, also, he was sure he would die of embarrassment the moment his back touched Erik's chest, so he had been refusing the grumbled offer for the better part of the trip.

Raven's solution to the bike dilemma had been swift and wicked: Since Erik was _too tall_ to _comfortably_ ride Charles' bike, he had been given Raven's, and since Raven's bike was the only one with something close to resembling a passenger's seat --the basket--, Charles would ride with him. On the basket.

Eevee was running happily alongside Raven, it was somewhat fearful of Erik so it kept its distance from their bike, and Sneasel had returned to its pokéball. The road through the woods was beautiful: the sounds of the wind and lurking pokémon a delightful background orchestra, the scent of earth and nature relaxing and the lush greenery a welcome view everywhere; it certainly would have been an enjoyable journey if it weren’t for the party's dreadful travel arrangements.

Another bump made Charles whimper. It had been so sudden that he hadn't been able to suppress his reaction and his face burned with shame. Just when he resolved to watch himself better, though, an arm pulled him backwards to a wall of warmth.

"Stay here, don't move," groused Erik. 

Red as a beet, Charles moved only to accommodate better against Erik's chest, wishing for the ride of hell to be over soon. A couple of Butterflees danced in the sky above. 

"D'aww. I want a boyfriend like yours, Charles." Raven said with a mocking pout. Charles glowered, Erik made a non-committal sound and Raven smirked.

And because both Raven and Erik kept eerily silent afterwards and Charles wasn't one for awkward silences, he made for idle chat.

"So, where do you come from, Erik?"

"Magnus Village."

"That's pretty close," observed Raven.

"Oh, there used to be a famous Pokémon Ranch there! Haven't heard of them for a while, though. Do you know of the Lehnsherr Ranch?" asked Charles over his shoulder excitedly and at Erik's withering look it hit him. Erik Lehnsherr. Erik Lehnsherr of Magnus Village, home of the legendary Lehnsherr Ranch.

"You are-- You--the ranch, you," babbled Charles, helpless.

Raven was confused. "I never heard of the Lehnsherr Ranch."

"Dad used to do most of his pokémon research there. They were known for their high quality pokémon, it was the best breeding pokémon ranch in Marvelia: You had a Lehnsherr Pokémon, you had a winner." Charles' enthusiastic gestures with both hands made him and Erik loose their balance momentarily, which forced them to clutch at each other, one with a single arm and the other with panicked hands, until they regained some stability. Eevee had run to his trainer's aid but Erik's warning frown made it squeak and retreat.

Raven laughed, amused, but then something niggled at her. "But Kurt has always done his research at Hoenn, that's why he's never home."

"Oh, Raven, I," Charles replied apologetic, his eyes carefully avoiding hers, "I meant my Dad, Brian. You, well, you didn't have the chance to meet him. He was, he was great."

Raven didn't ask more and Charles didn't elaborate. She already knew. Charles had loved his father very much.

"Brian Xavier, right? He was nice, my parents liked him and he brought me chocolate whenever he visited. He was kind to our pokémon too."

Erik's words brought Charles back from his momentary funk and he beamed at his new friend.

"I'd like to visit your ranch some time."

"Okay."

Charles hummed happily. He squirmed unconsciously to get more comfortable against Erik earning a grunt in response.

"So why isn't your ranch popular anymore?" asked Raven curious. 

It was Erik's turn to sour.

"A bad man with bad intentions happened."

The siblings nodded, they also didn't inquire further for which Erik felt grateful and their journey continued in a more comfortable silence, only occasionally broken by Charles complaining about the basket and his hurting rear. 

At some time during the ride, Eevee jumped onto Charles' lap making him yelp but after his owner's encouraging ear scratching not even Erik's irritated stare made it leave.

\--- (o)---

Cerebra Village was a small community. There was only a big Poké Lab and next to it was a baseball field that doubled as racing track. Seven houses, at most, were scattered around while everything else was trees and grass.

Erik, Charles and Raven arrived at the Lab gates where a girl with sunglasses and a Natu resting on her right shoulder received them. Eevee squealed at her and her pokémon, both nodded, and taking that as permission, the little pokémon ran past them into the Lab. 

"Irene!" shouted Raven so loud that Charles and Erik winced.

"Raven! We were expecting you! Everyone is already on the field warming up for the game," Irene and Raven exchanged a hug before Irene extended her hand to Charles. It missed Charles' position by a few inches but Charles only smiled and shook it. 

"Hello Charles!"

"Good Morning Irene, ready for the game?"

"Yes! We are all so excited."

Irene then raised her head, her Natu chirped and she turned her face to Erik.

"There's someone else with you," she said.

"It's Charles' new boyfriend," said Raven.

"Honestly, Raven. Everyone is my boyfriend or girlfriend to you."

Erik walked to shake Irene's hand pointing, slightly off, to him.

"Erik," 

"Nice to meet you, Erik."

They made small talk, not Erik's forte, but fortunately it was mostly Charles babbling about pokémon types and pokémon affinity for certain sports while Irene corrected his and Raven's outrageous misconceptions of baseball. Erik would pipe in now and then to make dry remarks on it and share some insight. He wasn't a sports fan but he knew more than enough about every sport, thank you.

A boy coming out of the lab joined them.

"Hey, Charles. Hey, Raven. Hi again there, Irene." 

The boy was even more lanky than Charles which Erik thought an accomplishment in itself, and wore round glasses that were too big for his face. He was also pretty tall, taller than Erik.

"Hello Hank!" greeted Charles and shook the boy's hand effusively. 

"Hank!" squealed Raven and jumped to hug him. The boy went completely red.

Irene and Charles laughed while the boy tried to half-heartedly pry her off but Raven was like a vicious Tangela, arms and legs wound stubbornly around him. 

"Ah, R-Raven, you and Irene s-should go practice, the game is in a couple of hours," stammered the boy. That made Raven release him with an 'Oh yes, you are right!' and drag Irene by the arm toward the baseball field.

Charles chuckled as the boy mooned after his sister.

"This is Hank," said Charles to Erik, "my good friend at Cerebra Lab. He's the personal assistant of the residing Professor Lee."

Charles rested a hand on Hank's shoulder.

"Hank, this Erik, a pokémon trainer."

Hank came to himself with a headshake and offered a hand to Erik.

"Hi, nice to meet you," he said. Erik grunted and the boy retired his hand as if burned. Good. Erik hated all these formalities and was reconsidering his coming here to train with Charles as a waste of time. So far they had done a lot of introductions and talking and no training.

Charles seemed to sense Erik's discomfort with the situation and gave him an apologetic smile. "Forgive me, my friend, I promised you we would train, and we will but first Hank and I need to go over something in the Lab. Would you care to come with us?"

Erik thought about refusing but, then again, thanks to Charles he had nothing better to do for the day so he shrugged and followed him and Hank into the building.

"This is a pet project of ours," explained Hank excitedly on the way, "Charles has been helping me every week and we've achieved so much! I don't know what would I have done without him. Specially since Charles is the only one who can use _it_ without much trouble."

Charles looked at Erik who had raised an inquiring eyebrow and preened.

"Our work will revolutionize the Pokémon world as we know it! It certainly will improve pokémon-human relationships and we will be able to better understand our pokéfriends," Charles eyes gleamed with joy at the possibilities.

Erik didn't respond. He didn't like Poké Labs. For ages, humans had been trying to get closer to Pokémon, to know where they come from and how they work and in Labs Pokémon were experimented on, subjected to unspeakable tortures at the hands of uncaring and greedy scientists when they were unlucky enough. They were turned into slaves for the lazy, weapons for the power-hungry, disposable toys for the snobbish. Even the 'good' Poké Labs often handed pokémon carelessly to new trainers not bothering with background checks, which only led to mistreated or abandoned pokémon, in the best of cases.

In the Ranch, the Lehnsherrs believed that to better understand a pokémon, all that was needed was trust, observation and caring. Professor Xavier hadn't been a bad scientist, Erik remembered, his machines never hurt the pokémon and he spent a lot of time with them in the fields. But not every scientist was Professor Xavier. 

Apparently, not even his son, thought Erik, when Charles and Hank led him into a wide room with an imposing array of machines. They walked to where a pair of helmets sat with all of their complicated circuitry exposed, they seemed attached to a main computer mainframe by a thick cord and two slim wires. Next to it, Charles' Eevee was placidly eating from a plate on the floor. 

"Meet Cerebro!" said Charles with a flourish.

But Erik wasn't excited.


	2. "A Legendary Game!"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **In the previous episode:**  
> 
> Charles met Erik Lehnsherr, heir of the once famous Lehnsherr Pokémon Ranch in Magnus Village, at the Xavier Gym where he was later beaten by Cain, Charles' older brother and Gym Leader. 
> 
> Erik agreed to accompany the two youngest Xavier siblings to Cerebra Village where Raven's very important baseball game will be taking place at midday so he could train with Charles and learn a way to defeat the Xavier Gym Leader.
> 
> While Raven gets ready for the game, Charles shows Erik to Cerebro, his joint project with the young lab assistant at Cerebra's Pokémon Lab.

"Meet Cerebro!" said Charles with a flourish.

The big machine was Hank's and Charles' pride. Hank had built it all himself, genius he was, but Charles had helped with some calculations and had gotten it to run properly after Hank's long months of frustration when it wouldn't work, rejecting user after user. Cerebro would bring a revolution to Pokémon Research, would pave the way for better Human-Pokémon relationships and Charles was sincerely hoping to show Erik the genius of it all. 

But Erik wasn't looking very thrilled.

Charles gave his newest friend a shy smile. "I admit it is somewhat crude-looking, the whole thing is still in its beta phase, you see, but what it is capable of doing even just now is simply amazing."

Erik gave him a short nod, clearly unconvinced. He looked warily around the room, his face scrunched up with an apprehensive frown, and his eyes narrowed minutely when Eevee squealed loudly and happily having cleaned its plate of food. 

"You liked that, didn't you?" asked Hank to the small Pokémon. It yipped, content, and ran up to Charles who petted it behind its ears. 

Hank switched on Cerebro then and began the calibrations, the device chirped as its buttons lit in blues, reds, yellows and greens. 

Truth be told, Charles had been hoping to impress Erik with his and Hank's work. The boy's frowning face and evident apprehension, however, told him well enough how little he had succeeded. Perhaps when the actual session began, Cerebro working its magic, Erik's mood would change.

Because, well, Charles liked Erik and wanted to show off. He was mysterious and Charles loved mysteries; here was a piece of the puzzle that was the downfall of the Lenhsherrs' Ranch, a beloved place for Brian Xavier that Charles never got to visit --oh, his father had promised to take him there, he had, but then the accident happened and Brian never came back home.

"It's ready, Charles," announced Hank and motioned to Charles' pockets, "Call your Wobbuffet, won't you?"

Charles nodded, called forth a pokéball and summoned Wobbuffet. It let out a loud 'Wobbu-Wobbu-ffet!' and saluted with more force than usual, excited, as eager to start the session as Charles. Eeevee yipped cheerily next to them.

Erik's unfaltering glare, however, hardened when Hank placed a Cerebro helmet on Wobbuffet's head. He opened his mouth, about to say something before his eyes widened almost comically at the sight of Charles putting on the bigger Cerebro helmet himself. His befuddlement was quite short lived, though, quickly morphing into what Charles would have thought to be silent simmering outrage.

"He's a test subject too?" he barked at Hank. 

Hank gave him a look that said something like 'what else did you expect' --Hank could be a nervous wreck anywhere but his Lab-- and went to retrieve their research diary, a pencil and their notes from previous sessions as well.

"I have been from the start," replied Charles calmly. Contrary to Charles' hopes, Erik grew even more dubious and distrustful of the process.

"Cerebro won't run with anyone else." Decidedly oblivious of Erik's menacing frown, Hank explained further: "Cerebro's objective is to provide a temporary link between a human and a Pokémon's mind. Just as some very powerful psychic pokémon can project their thoughts into human minds, even read them on occasion, Cerebro is to aid a human to do the same. Alas, it cannot as of yet convert the human brainwaves' frequency to Pokémon's on its own, it needs the aid of a psychic pokémon to map a working synapses' core of transmissible brainwaves frequencies and to trigger the connection. Boosting the model Pokémon's own psychic powers allows for said Pokémon, the human and Cerebro to have a considerable range of action as well, say, miles of clear coverage. So you could say Cerebro is also an ability booster, only for psychic Pokémon and only for this task alone, though."

Many had trouble following the theory behind Cerebro but Erik seemed to be doing quite fine as Hank prattled on. Charles really, really liked Erik.

"Still, Cerebro has quite the trouble doing the necessary psionic wavelength conversion onto most humans since common psychic Pokémon lack the mind strength and fine tuning that more powerful Pokémon like Mew, for example, possesses. That's why only the most powerful psychic Pokémon can effectively wield telepathy."

"But Charles' brain is amazing." At this, Erik turned to Charles who might have or might have not blushed, mind you, and raised an eyebrow, his mouth quirked in a guarded smirk.

"Really," said Erik.

It was hard being the sole focus or Erik's piercing stare. Charles squirmed a bit, much to his own chagrin. Erik's smile grew wider.

"Yes! His brain offers no resistance to the process, unlike the others, it's amazingly cooperative. It's as if it was already accustomed to the whole of it and welcomed the experience." Hank said excitedly, his glasses slid down his nose with the movements of his wild gesturing. He quickly resettled them with a push of his forefinger.

"So let's begin."

This is where what little good humor Erik had scraped together in the last minutes drained away. He was all glares and scowls again. Oh, bother.

"I assure you, Erik, that Wobbuffet and I are perfectly alright with this. It's neither painful or harmful, actually, we look forward to our every Cerebro session, it's quite refreshing and thrilling," soothed Charles and Wobbuffet saluted happily just as Eevee squealed with anticipation.

"If you say so," replied Erik unconvinced but offered a tentative smile all the same. His hands were tight shaking fists.

Then Cerebro finished the brain mapping. It beeped and the outside world became a second worry for Charles as his mind expanded, Wobbuffet's consciousness sharing the ride with him.

Charles loved it. His world now was but bright spots in an endless clean mindscape, each spot with a distinct flavor, a distinct light, a distinct warmth. Each a unique Pokémon or man with a unique story, a unique life. He navigated with ease the sea of minds, a practiced skill, familiar and known from years of daily indulgence at home. Which reminded him, he knew this shining rosy dot near the stadium.

Charles touched it with a tendril of his mind. It bloomed in bright colors of wonder and delight. It greeted Charles with joy.

_You followed us, my friend._

The light grew warmer, unabashedly giddy as it showed him images of the stadium grounds: Raven was discussing something with Irene while their Pokémon and the rest of the team ran laps, swung bats and generally prepared for the game.

_Yes, I'm excited about it too._

The light shone a bright yellow and tasted of anticipation.

"Charles?"

Hank's voice yanked Charles' attention, and so he left the familiar consciousness to its own devices, hopefully none too troublesome.

"I'm here Hank," he replied.

Hank let out a relived sigh, out loud he said: "See? He's alright."

"Could've fooled me. He isn't moving at all." Erik's voice sounded clipped, sharp.

"He's connecting to nearby Pokémon minds. Maybe even human ones, Wobbuffet's readings are quite high today."

"Hush you two! I'm having fun," said Charles with a grin.

He found another well-known spot of light and poked at it in greeting.

Somewhere close by, Eevee squealed and the light opened a little door welcoming Charles in. He saw then the laboratory though everything was bigger now; before him was Charles' body, deadly still but smiling. Erik was looking at him too, his right hand clutching a pokéball. 

"I'm with Eevee now," announced Charles. Hank gave a quick glance to Cerebro's main screen and began scribbling in the project's journal.

"Good, good," he said. "So how are you feeling Eevee?" he then asked.

Eevee's response was a waggle of its tail and a little excited cry.

"I...am... fine. Food was good Hank, better than ever!" translated Charles slowly.

"Don't...tell Hank, Charlie, but I saved...some for you. Hid it away." And just as Charles finished talking, Eevee lowered its ears indignantly, giving him a hurt glare.

"Oh, Eevee, darling, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to!" Charles apologized quickly. Hank, however, almost dropped the journal and puffed angrily. 

"Gosh! Not again Eevee!" he said, "I told you to stop hiding food in my Lab! It's unhygienic, honestly!" 

Erik's face betrayed then a smile. A tiny itty bitty smile but it was there. Charles smiled to himself as Hank began to search through the Lab for the hidden food, Eevee at his heels, barking warningly each time they approached one of the Pokémon's usual hiding places.

"It's Charlie's! Leave it alone, not giving it to you, you have plenty!" translated Charles once more, chuckling. "Eevee, I'm fine. I appreciate the sentiment, though. Thank you," he said.

Eevee's ears perked up. It looked at Charles expectantly.

"Of course you can eat it, go ahead."

Eevee ran. It bypassed an annoyed Hank kneeling under a desk and retrieved a few chunks of Pokémon food from behind an old broken computer tucked away in a corner.

Hank sighed, walked to stand next to Charles and began writing anew in their journal. He shoot admonishing looks at Eevee every now and then.

And, well, Charles couldn't see him, but he heard Erik snort loudly, disbelieving and contemptuous. It deflated Charles; he had hoped Erik would have lost his apprehensiveness by now, that the boy had gotten at least a bit more interested in his and Hank's work.

"It's a nice little show, but I'm not stupid. You can't seriously think anyone sane would really fall for this ridiculous charade," said Erik, he had crossed his arms over his chest.

"I assure you this isn't a trick," huffed Hank.

"Prove it," challenged Erik just as he summoned one of his Pokémon. A Magnemite.

"Read her."

A new spot lit up in Charles' mindscape map. It was dimly green with bright whites, it tasted of loyalty and longing. He gave it a friendly mental knock.

"Hello there," greeted Charles out loud. The Magnemite gave a spin in the air, it greeted him with a contented screech.

"You summoned Lorna. She's ah... yes, she's the youngest of your Magnemite but not the youngest of your party's Pokémon."

"Easy to deduce. By her size and bolts, if you paid attention in our duel, you could easily tell her apart."

"He's got his eyes closed!" hissed Hank to which Erik only harrumphed.

"Alright, alright. Could you tell me something only you and Erik know, Lorna?" asked Charles sheepishly. 

Lorna turned to its trainer, tilting down a little in the air, asking for permission.

Erik nodded. Hank was taking notes as fast as he could.

"Lorna tells me that once, when you were very young, you fell into the breeding pond at the back of the Ranch. You almost drowned but the Pokémon nearby were able to get you out."

As soon as Charles spoke, Erik's eyes widened and his mouth clenched tightly shut.

"Lorna's mother, oh, oh dear... oh dear, I'm so very sorry." Charles shook his head, "Lorna's mother drowned saving you. Lorna was only a few days old back then and you have been taking care of her and her big brother and big sister ever since."

Charles kept silent after that, Erik too. The only sound for what felt like hours but were in reality merely a few seconds was Hank's pencil scratching on paper.

"Well," said Erik finally, "I'm impressed."

Somehow it didn't feel like a victory.

  


\--(o)--  
  


  


After Lorna's revelation -- Erik would not begrudge her the story, he had given his consent after all-- Hank and Charles had switched back to observe Eevee. They 'spoke' to other Pokémon in the vicinity too, including Charles' sister's Sneasel at the stadium. Quickly enough, the session was over.

They left Hank in the Lab to sort out the new data while Charles lead Erik towards the building's patio. It hadn't been too long a walk.

"Ta-da?" said Charles as both stepped outside the Poké Lab's premises, his arms outstretched, showing off the open area. Erik raised an eyebrow. The place was good, ideal even. There was a large clear patch of hard soil at the center, scarce thin grass here and there that only dared to thicken nearing the border. Further away, behind a steel mesh, berry shrubs and fruit trees could be seen growing well. They were nicely cared for, the Lab's garden, perhaps, and behind them was a dome that Erik suspected was an actual Green House.

When Erik looked back at Charles, the boy was deliberately staring away, hands clasped at his back, slowly rocking back and fort on his heels. Erik smirked.

"So. How should I kick your ass today, Charles?" he teased. Charles turned sharply to him, an indignant frown on his face.

"If by ass kicking you mean utter defeat at _my_ hands, then, by any means my friend, I shall grant you the first step of our dance," Charles said haughtily, then grinned wide and bright.

They began the training.

Wobbuffet had been a little tired after Hank's machine's demonstration --Erik still felt grudgingly amazed by the fact that the awkward boy had built it all by himself-- so Charles had relied on Eevee for the most of their battling, Wobbuffet intervening only when he'd recovered some.

It was frustrating to Erik, just as it had been in their first encounter, the way Charles kept so carefully on the defensive. His strategy was reactive on the whole, his attacks lacked aggressiveness, their intent was more focused on subduing by pressure than hasty incapacitation. It grated on Erik's nerves.

"Stop holding back!" he shouted to Charles when he couldn't stand it anymore. "Fight like you really mean it! Dammit!"

"W-What?" Charles spluttered startled, his Eevee skipped a step in surprise and tripped down, Wanda zapped him. The battle was over.

Charles had been, admittedly, too absorbed in Erik's body movements--in a totally professional way, _seriously_ ; he was trying to understand him in relation to his Pokémon and their battle synchronization-- so he was quite taken aback by his abrupt outburst. Because, well, Charles wasn't holding back.

As a trainer, Erik was quite fascinating. His strategies were mostly power-based, lacking some finesse, and his pokémon responded well to his every command and yet, _and yet_ , they weren't performing to their fullest. They had a deep connection, that much was obvious, yes, but their bond was left wanting at the end of the day. Charles had yet to pinpoint why. He had hoped that their training together would have provided some insight into the issue so, once fixed, Erik would defeat Cain. 

But then, Erik thought Charles was _holding back_.

_Holding back._

"I'm not holding back!" 

"Yes you are," huffed Erik. "You are not trying to win at all, your moves are all defensive and when you finally decide to attack, you are too soft. Your Pokémon are completely repressing themselves for your sake, they feel your hesitance and act accordingly."

Charles opened his mouth to respond something, anything, but the truth was he didn't know what to say. Erik wasn't finished, though.

"And that Eevee," Erik pointed to Charles' Eevee and the little Pokémon's ears perked in attention. "Is well past his time to evolve."

"Eevee's not ready!"

"You mean _you_ are not ready."

It wasn't that at all! Why rush it? Rushing only ever lead to bad decisions in Charles experience --Exhibit A: One Sharon Xavier's marriage to one Kurt Marko. Also, the sudden rush of power could be detrimental to Eevee's psyche if not carefully handled. Charles sighed. Yes, Erik was right on one account, he just grudgingly realized, Charles didn't feel ready to evolve Eevee. 

"--veee?" Eevee asked confused. Charles patted its head. He had also just realized Erik's problem.

"Must everything be about winning and power to you? That's why you can't defeat Cain, you focus too much in your attacks and leave yourself vulnerable. Your Pokémon are so intent on coping with your blinding hunger for victory on the field, pouring every ounce of their power in each hit, that they are left either too tired or too distracted to defend themselves."

Erik and Charles glared at each other.

After a minute or so, Charles hunched his shoulders and shook his head. "Just another victim of Sebastian Shaw, I suppose," he said ruefully.

Erik's eyes sharpened, his mouth twisted dangerously. "Do you know him? Shaw?" He sneered. A shiver ran down Charles spine but he composed himself quickly and replied.

"Not personally, no. But he's a horrible trainer, you know? He's written dozens of books on Pokémon psychology and behavior as well as training handbooks. All of them terribly misguided, if you ask me, his research methods are inhumane, his facts completely wrong. A hack if I've ever read one yet he's adored by the masses, upstanding scientific minds even take his lies seriously! Gah!" Despite his best efforts, Charles grew angrier the more he talked about that despicable self-proclaimed Pokémon Behaviorist Genius. All bull, bull and ever more! He threw his arms in the air and continued with his tirade. 

"People take his words at heart, they truly believe everything his crazy books spew and then you have trainers hurting their Pokémon, misunderstanding their very real, very fragile necessities! He's all 'Power', 'Supremacy', 'Victory', 'Survival of the fittest'." By this point Charles was making faces with every quote, mocking caricatures of Shaw's face, his voice was pitched at a ridiculous level in parody of Shaw's.

And Erik was smirking, guardedly amused.

As Charles rallied on about how he and Hank would debunk Shaw's ridiculous theories and expose him for the hack he was once Cerebro was fully functioning, Raven appeared through the steel door that had brought him and Erik to the patio. 

"You got him started on Shaw?" she asked laughing once she joined them. Erik flinched slightly at the name but it was so fast that she didn't notice. He shrugged for lack of a better response.

Charles stopped mid-rant, sheepish and hurt. "Raven," he chided but said no more. Raven smiled.

"Listen Erik," she said seriously, although the uplifted corner of her mouth betrayed mischief, "If you are going to be Charles' boyfriend you've got to know about the 'Forbidden Conversation Topics' list. Any mention of any of those and Charles will go on a nerdrage," she winked.

If Erik were one to make such observations, he would describe Charles' blushing face as 'cute'. But since he wasn't that absurd a person, it was more humorous than anything to see him grow red as a beet. He felt his anger subside, much to his chagrin. 

"Number one," Raven began, "Professor Oak's laaaaaaame poetry; second, Shaw the Hack; third, Tea versus Coffee; fourth--"

"Oh, dear sister, please. Stop embarrassing me, would you?" pleaded Charles as he tried rather unsuccessfully to shut Raven's mouth with a hand. 

Batting her brother's hands away, Raven made to the Lab's door. "The Game is about to start, I just came to fetch you. Hank's already at the stadium so let's go." She motioned them to follow and left.

Erik and Charles walked side by side on their way to the stadium, Eevee and Wanda trailing behind.

At one time during their walk, Charles whispered to Erik: "I'm sorry about before. I thought you were one of Shaw's awful fans, you know? Didn't mean to explode like that."

"It's alright," replied Erik. "For the record, I hate the guy too." Charles smiled to him, a playful little smile. Erik averted his eyes quickly.

"So, 'Tea and Coffee'..." he teased instead.

"Oh, my friend, you don't really want to go there, believe me." Charles laugh was loud, vibrant and warm.

  


  
\--(o)--  
  


  


Charles wished his sister good luck and let her go to the field with a peck on the cheek. Today was Raven's big day and Charles wanted nothing but to see her triumphant and happy. He sat next to Hank in the first row of seats, Erik to his right, Eevee on his lap.

Hank was by now dressed just like Charles was, in the colors of the Legendary Ho-Oh's, looking flustered.

"So you are the cheerleaders?" joked Erik but at Charles' and Hank's withering looks, he sobered. "Oh God. You are." Erik looked around. "I think I'll go sit somewhere else."

"Too late," said Charles grabbing him by the arm, "You are already doomed. Seat and enjoy yourself."

The people around them roared as the competing teams appeared on the field. 

"Today we have the game of games," announced a voice, "Will The Legendary Ho-Oh's be able to finally beat their oldest rivals The Wild Rhyhorns this year, or will they lose their place in the Championship at their hands once more?"

There were collective boos and whistling from the spectators in the stadium. Charles and Hank rose to shout Raven's team name and the game opened to the sound of blasting trumpets and heavy rock and roll music.

  


  
\--(o)--  
  


  


Raven's team was losing. 

Erik had managed to escape to the stand behind Hank's and Charles', he found a seat next to Officer Logan who was chewing an unlit cigar and shouting nonsense to the players. Sometimes he shouted encouragement to the Ho-Oh's and sometimes to the Rhyhorns. He cackled manically every time Charles or Hank turned to glare at him for calling their team "wussies" and cheered for the rival team instead.

Erik didn't feel bad for abandoning Charles to his cheerleading duties at the front row. He didn't think the boy would hold it against him either, he didn't seem the type to hold grudges. So he watched Charles jump and wave for his sister's team and laughed unashamedly at him and his awkward scientist friend. For once, he was having a good time, his Mama would have been proud _'Ach, Erik,_ liebling _, stop being so doom and gloom. Go have some fun like a normal kid,_ shush shush!'.

And that's why, Erik thought angrily, that's why _they_ showed up. Of course they did. He suspected they had some sort of 'Erik's having fun' detector laying somewhere just so they could come and spoil his day.

How Erik hated _them_.

There was a blast of light in the middle of the stadium nearly blinding everyone and the screaming and chaos broke loose.

"Beware of trouble!" began to recite a familiar voice. Erik grew angrier.

Above the field floated a big Politoed-themed air balloon, three silhouettes in its passenger basket. Because of the dirt clouds raised by the blast it was hard to distinguish any of their features. 

"We are the Hell Fire Club, give us your Pokémon or suffer the consequences!" announced quickly a high-pitched voice.

"You idiot! Don't interrupt the oath!"

"But it's such a hassle. Bah!"

The most slender of the silhouettes started to kick the shortest of them all into oblivion.

"You stupid waste of meat! It's because you didn't even bother to memorize it!"

"It's rubbish! It doesn't even make sense!" argued the shrilly voice.

"Toad kind of has a point. Maybe we should update the oath, make it more threatening, say grimdark stuff like 'We are the night!'. You get me?"

Now it was the tallest silhouette the recipient of a violent beating.

"No, I don't ' _get you_ ', imbecile! The oath is perfect as it is! Now say it!"

"Aye-aye ma'am Astra," whined both the abused silhouettes. Erik already had a pokéball in each hand, ready to get over the imminent mess as fast as possible. He would be extra vicious this time around and see if they finally left him alone.

The air cleared and he finally saw them: The Hell Fire Club Goons. Astra, the bossy witch, was dressed in a prismatic body suit as was her custom; Joseph, the pathetic wimp, wore a hideous combination of purple and magenta --honestly, the guy was even worse at picking clothes than Erik himself-- and then there was Toad, a lazy blockhead and an actual, living talking Politoed.

"Beware of trouble!" began Astra once more.

"Gonna kick yer ass so hard yer grandkids gonna walk funny, punks!" yelled Officer Logan as his Zangoose jumped into the air aiming his sharp claws to the hot-air balloon's ropes. "Then I'm gonna toss ya into a cell fer good!"

"Don't interrupt the oath!" shouted Astra enraged, stomping her foot on the basket's floor so hard the Politoed Balloon shook. Joseph and Toad hugged each other in fear.

Zangoose cut the balloon's ropes and the Hell Fire Club free fell to the ground shrieking the whole way down. 

"I'll kill you this time, I swear I will," growled Erik menacingly at them when he reached the crater their fall had made in the center of the stadium. The criminal trio was rubbing their backsides and grunting in pain. People started to gather around then, curious.

"No kid, I'm killing them first," declared Official Logan with a predatory smirk next to Erik.

"Back off because I'm the one killing these dumbasses!" snarled Raven who had run to them too, her Sneasel in tow, claws raised, fangs bared. 

"No one's killing anyone!" shouted Charles, still a few paces away but jogging to join the angry mob surrounding the Hell Fire Club. No one paid him any attention.

Astra was the first to recover. "As if!" She said and called forth her Kecleon. She looked at Erik. "And you better give us what we want or we'll bring hell upon you!"

"You already do!" hissed Erik, furious. He could hear Charles admonishing Raven's rashness somewhere near, asking her to leave the situation in Logan's hands. _Honestly_.

"Fess up shark-face!" demanded Joseph pointing a finger to Erik, then threw a pokéball summoning a Voltorb. It immediately self-destructed.

Erik knew it was going to happen, he was accustomed to the inept trio and specially their Voltorb's highly volatile mood so before Joseph had finished his throw, he had already begun to sprint towards Charles' voice at top speed and had pushed the wide-eyed boy and his sister down.

"What's the big idea you psyc---!"

"Erik, what are you---!"

Voltorb self-destructed but Erik had been able to keep himself and the Xavier siblings from most of the damage. Weirdly, not even rubble got to them. Others hadn't been so lucky.

"Idiots! The whole of you!" screeched Astra, coughing smoke, Toad as well as Kecleon were out of the count and Joseph stood up on shaky legs, his clothes burnt. The others hit by the explosion began to recover too, their faces black with dirt and ashes. The people got up dizzily, coughed violently and dispersed, some of them, specially those members of a baseball team, carried their fainted Pokémon away.

"He just gets nervous around too many people..." groveled Joseph.

"I'm gonna make you nervous alright!" Astra delivered a strong hook to Joseph's stomach drawing from him a pitiful groan.

"At least it seemed to have turned out in our favor this time," said Joseph weakly, directing Astra's glare to the passed out Zangoose lying next to their KO'd Pokémon. Both quickly turned their heads to the sound of crackling bones behind them, though.

"Ohhh, now you've really pissed me off chumps," Logan's smile was toothy and manic, he cracked his knuckles one more time to the Hell Fire's awakening horror.

Yes, Erik would have liked to see their well-deserved punishment play out but as it were his attention was diverted to the writhing bodies under his. He'd covered Charles who had also covered Raven and they looked quite ridiculous, actually, piled one over the other.

"Would you mind?!" complained Raven loudly, pushing him and Charles off of her, "I'm suffocating here, for Chrissakes!" Her Sneasel had taken cover behind them, it now approached her trainer with concealed worry.

"Oh God, Raven, oh God!" freaked out Charles, "Are you alright?" he fussed over his sister before she shoved him away, turning then his fussing to Erik. "Erik, God, Erik, are you hurt? You shielded us! Let me look at you!"

Usually, Erik would be annoyed by the attention but he didn't mind so much with Charles, which he thought strange.

"I'm okay, happens all the time so I'm used to it. Resistant even," he said instead and after ten seconds or so of patience --indeed quite strange-- he swatted Charles' gentle but curious hands away. "Stop pawing at me."

The Hell Fire's yowls, grunts and pleas for mercy made for a delightful background music.

  
\--(o)--  
  


  


Officer Logan had arrested the Hell Fire Club --again. He had tied them together and thrown them onto the back of his bike and ridden back to Xaviera Town right after. The audience cheered heartily. 

The game resumed, too, although with a considerable crater in the centre of the stadium and appreciably less players. Raven pouted the entire time. The Ho-Oh's still lost.

Charles and Hank, for their part, had half-heartedly resumed their cheerleading duties but as the game progressed and Raven's mood soured more and more, they decided to just drop it. Specially after the particularly icy glare they received from her when they attempted and failed to elicit a Wave. They both sat down with a wince and remained pensive for what little time was left of the event. 

That's how Erik found acceptable to return to Charles' side. 

"Why would they even do it? All they accomplished was to make Officer Logan mad and send my baby sister into full Gyarados mode," asked Charles softly, bereft. Below on the field, Raven, Irene and the remaining Ho-Oh's struggled to salvage their game.

"Her team was going to loose anyway," said Erik which as far as comforting went, left much, much to be desired --however true his observation was in this case. But Charles could tell Erik was trying, poorly, but trying anyway and that made all the difference. Somehow, he didn't think Erik would do it for just anyone. 

Charles smiled ruefully. "Thanks." 

Erik shrugged, decidedly not looking at him.

"What truly surprised me, though," pondered Hank aloud, "was how none of you three were hurt by the flying debris of Voltorb's attack. I saw it all from here and it's mystifying how the rock fragments and dirt just seemed to simply bounce off of you. As if... as if..."

"A force field protected us?" suggested Charles with a smirk.

"Exactly!"

"Impossible," Charles said flatly, his face mockingly blank, and Hank slumped in his seat with a defeated sigh. 

"Yeah, I guess. Only an extremely powerful Pokémon could put together that good a force field in such a short notice."

Erik caught the quick glance Charles threw to the far end of the stadium but couldn't decipher its meaning. _Interesting._

  
\--(o)--  
  


  


  
It was evening by the time the game finally --finally!-- ended and Raven dragged her sulking self to her brother's side, Irene in tow.

"Good game everyone!" cheered Charles, his Eevee nodding happily next to him. Raven glared daggers at them both.

"Uh-oh," confided Charles to Erik in a whisper, "Time for Bomb Defusing Tactic #3" Coughing pointedly, Charles dragged a terrified Hank from behind Erik.

"Hank thinks you did amazing, sister dear. Why, he didn't have mind for anything else during the game but you! Eh, Hank, old friend?" Charles elbowed Hank non-too-subtly in the ribs and Hank startled with a loud yelp.

"T-T-That's right!" he squeaked.

Raven wasn't impressed.

"I really liked your performance, considering the pre-set choices available within the offered environment," soldiered Hank on, much to Erik's wonder and amusement. Charles smiled, his eyes twinkling, just as Irene chuckled. 

Raven glared harder.

Hank offered a shaky smile.

"Oh Hank!" squealed Raven, suddenly bright and cheery. She pounced, enveloping him in a tight suffocating hug. Hank turned impossibly red but it was difficult to tell if it was because of Raven's attentions or the lack of air.

"That's low," observed Erik rising an eyebrow.

"But it works," rebutted Charles, "When Hank fails, we usually sacrifice Irene next," his tone was worryingly serious. Irene gave a mock shudder, poorly hiding a laugh.

"I'm glad I was spared," she said with an exaggerated sigh of relief, her Natu chirped.

While Hank fought to free himself from Raven's clutches, Irene shared with Erik and Charles her own assessment of the game a well as the performance of the team's Pokémon. Her baseball knowledge was impressive. 

Eventually, Hank pleaded for help and Charles had to leave to coax his sister away from the flailing boy, Eevee at his heels. Without him, the conversation lulled to a stop for Erik didn't socialize if he could help it and Irene was a quiet girl. Her Natu, perched on one of her petite shoulders, grew restless.

"Destiny is worried about you," she said cryptically after a while. Charles had Raven seized by her waist and was trying to pull her away from Hank. She giggled but wouldn't budge, Hank was turning purple, Eevee ran circles around them yipping and growling. 

Erik stared at Irene. "Excuse me?" he asked puzzled. 

"My Natu, her name is Destiny," she replied. 

Erik understood then, it was said that Natu and Xatu could _sense_ the future. He wondered about the answer, it was probably nothing favorable but he asked anyway. Misfortune had been his closest companion for the longest of times and very few things could faze him anymore.

"What will happen?"

"She can't exactly tell, no Natu can, but she feels it. All around you, a laden veil of... doom."

Erik thought the dramatic pause was a bit too much and had to rein in a snort. Anyone could have told him about his _doom_ , and Erik would still be unsurprised. He knew himself too well, knew his chosen path too well. 

"Alright," he said. Irene looked at him with even more concern.

"No Erik, you don't get it. It's big, it's terrible. You must change something or your future will be full of grief and loss."

Charles managed to pry Raven away from Hank when at a particularly strong pull she let go and the three of them toppled down. They laid sprawled on the floor, laughing, Raven atop Charles, Hank a few feet apart, Eevee mewling next to them. When Charles made to stand up, Raven caught his leg.

"Not letting you go!" she said.

"Irene! Hank! Erik! Help!" cried Charles still laughing, his pokémon squeaking and jumping frantically around.

Erik took a long breath. "Thanks for your advice, Irene," he said and began walking to the tangled mess that were Raven and Charles, Hank hovering close and flustered. His mother had taught him better manners --not that he ever put them into practice-- but Erik didn't appreciate other people worrying about him or telling him what to do. His fate, also, was only his to decide.

"I'd like to leave," he announced.

"Awww," complained Raven but her pouting didn't work on Erik. After a moment, she let Charles go and wiped dirt and grass leaves off her uniform. Charles put himself back together quickly too, he gave Erik an apologetic smile.

"You are right, it's quite late. We've imposed too much."

"Not at all, we are always glad to have you here," said Hank.

They said their goodbyes, though, Raven with hugs --normal hugs--, Charles all smiles and Erik with a swift nod. They were finally heading back to Xaviera Town.

Erik found himself riding Raven's bike once more, and Charles whined about having to sit on the front basket again. Raven cackled gleefully.

  
\--(o)--  
  


  


  
On the way back, Erik learned three things that, to be honest, he wasn't too interested in knowing at the time, or ever. But the Xavier siblings just liked to talk a lot. 

The first thing he learned was that Irene hadn't been born blind, but the road accident that took her parents' lives had also taken her sight; she had suffered a traumatic head injury, the pressure within her skull had 'choked' her optic nerves. Irene had also met her Natu then and the Pokémon had stayed with her until help arrived, unfortunately a bit too late for her eyes.

The second thing he learned was that Charles and Raven met Hank three years ago when Raven had come of age to train Pokémon and the siblings had come to Cerebra's Village Lab for one. Hank's father was the resident Professor, his family had adopted Irene, but by the time the Xaviers had arrived at the Lab, there hadn't been any starter pokémon left. What pokémon they had had available was a sickly Ditto.

"I named him Raphael-Raven Darkholme Adler Xavier. Because Raphael is a handsome name, because Raven is my name, because Darkholme is my last name and Irene's is Adler and Charles would be sad if Raphael didn't have his last name."

"For the record, I told her I wouldn't."

"You didn't."

"I did."

"No, you didn't."

When Erik rolled his eyes and asked --mistake, big mistake-- why she hadn't added Hank's last name, Charles replied that Raven had been afraid that if she did so, Hank would've found out Raven 'liked- _liked_ ' him.

"I don't like- _like_ him!"

"You do, darling."

"I don't!"

"You do, it's obvious to everyone but the poor chap."

Erik rolled his eyes again and pedaled faster, running over a thick branch. The sudden movement and the violent bump jostled Charles back against Erik's chest, hard. Erik wheezed, Eevee fell from Charles lap with a cry.

The third thing Erik learned was that Charles apparently slept in old fashioned pajamas.

"Now why would you go and tell him that?"

"Because you are an old man."

It should have been a hellish ride back to town.

It was almost tolerable.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (--TBC in this same chapter later)


End file.
